


Old Guard Prompts and Drabbles

by RayByAnotherName



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Leverage Fusion, Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, F/F, Gen, Headcanon, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Old Married Couple, forced sobriety
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 5,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25861798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RayByAnotherName/pseuds/RayByAnotherName
Summary: Where all my tumblr drabbles and ficlets come to hang out on ao3. This one is all Old Guard!
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Booker | Sebastien le Livre/James Copley, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 37
Kudos: 98





	1. 3 Years

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> greedydancer on tumblr brought up the excellent point that Nicky is 3 years younger than Joe and Joe would LOVE to harp on that during disagreements. I wrote this quick drabble in response.

“Ah, yes, when I was your age…”

Nicky’s hand starts twitching and he immediately tunes Joe out for fear that he might kill him this time.

3 years… it’s a drop in the bucket at their age, but, oh! It’s an important drop apparently.

“…as you will come to see when you’re my age…”

Nicky’s brow twitches and he slumps forward, trying to focus on the book he’d been quietly reading. This is what he gets for mocking the author’s point about the derivative nature of human behavior.

“…you’ll see, once you get a few years on you-”

Nicky sighs and Joe pauses to raise a brow at him. He’s smiling at, the pretty little sarcastic one that Nicky would normally be more than happy to kiss off his lover’s face.

“Joe, darling, if you make another reference to my age…” Nicky glanced towards the umbrella stand full of swords by the door, “…I cannot be held responsible for my actions.”

Joe’s eyes followed Nicky’s gaze and he nearly doubled over in laughter. His guffaw echoed off the walls of the kitchen and Nicky’s spine straightened. The heat rising in his body was half annoyance and half arousal, but it was all frustration.

“I think I would like to see that…” Joe leaned over to kiss Nicky’s cheek, he drew back, grin stretching across his face, “…my young love.”


	2. Apple Juice and Whiskey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mega-ringsandthings-world posted some glorious headcanons for Copley/Booker, one of which was that Copley would replace all of Booker's whiskey with apple juice when Booker annoyed him. This short drabble was my addition to that headcanon.

“In my defense, I thought you would notice before you drank it,” Copley does not look away from his computer as a cursing Frenchman slams open the door of the small cafe he’s sitting at. The other patrons, all French, barely give Booker a glance as he stomps towards Copley’s back corner.

“My whiskey Copley!” Booker’s hands launch into the air, “You don’t mess with a man’s whiskey!!”

Copley glances up, a chuckle pulling on his lips, “Not my fault you can’t tell apple juice from alcohol.” Booker sputters out a few curses in French and Copley shrugs, “Color is off, smell, but no…you went for taste first didn’t you?”

“You’re an evil, evil man,” Booker grumbles and plops into a seat opposite Copley. The man just keeps typing. Booker orders a triple-triple espresso just to watch Copley’s lips curl.

“Next time, though, you won’t leave your socks on my couch, will you?”


	3. Forced Sobriety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mega-ringsandthings-world has a list of Booker and Quynh roommate headcanons on tumblr, which prompted me to add my own headcanon of Quynh getting Booker sober as a dry-run (ha!) for saving Andy's now mortal liver.

Replacing his furniture was one thing… he even got a decent cushion without splinters to sit in, so that was technically a positive gain. He hadn’t said anything when she threw out half his wardrobe - he only wore three things anyway.

But this… Oh, this… This could not go unanswered!

“Where is my wine Quynh?” Booker glares at her from the kitchen. Quynh just hums, not even looking up from her canvas.

Even while painting, she’s dressed head to toe in designer clothes. Leisure clothes, sure, but leggings that cost 150$ should not be paint clothes if you ask Booker.

“Seriously, I know it was you,” Booker tries to reason, “Not even Copley would hide my liquor!”

“Copley is the boyfriend yes?” Quynh looks at him now, brows scrunched together, “The one who was offended by my coffee order?”

Booker takes a deep breath in through his nose, “Yes, now, where-”

“I poured it out.” Quynh tells him, head tilting to the left as a serene smile spreads across her face. Her red lipstick noticeable doesn’t smear.

Booker hates her. Andy had never been this… this… he can’t even think without a drink right now.

“Once your body cycles through and heals your liver, I think you’ll find the alcoholism easier to defeat,” Quynh speaks as if talking about the weather and Booker’s jaw drops open.

Quynh chuckles and returns to her painting. Her lips separate into a vicious grin.

“And if not, I have found many strategies to assist you, Booker.”

A chill runs up Booker’s spine and he shudders. He goes back to the kitchen to prepare dinner. He has no desire to find out what other strategies Quynh has in mind…


	4. Some Nile Headcanons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A list of headcanons revolving around Nile that kinda sorta tell a few small stories. Literally copy/pasted from the Tumblr post!

Her brother was 100% against her joining the Marines because he was afraid to lose her too. And now she has All the Guilt about fulfilling his greatest fear.

Her little bro is named Layne in my head as a nod to Kiki because it means roadway and rivers are the original roadways. Siblings should always have related name meanings!

She takes forever to warm up to Quynh because of the memories of her nightmares.

Once Quynh and Nile bond, they go full tag team to keep Andy from her usual self-destructive bullshit lifestyle choices.

And by bond, I mean they jump off a building together and Quynh does a flip.

Nile has Always been the big sister - first with her actually little brother and then with her unit. She’d get up in the middle of the night to check they were all breathing sleeping soundly.

That big sister experience has prepared her Not At All for becoming the baby of a millenia old found family with abandonment issues.

Nile took a detour on the way home from a mission one time and was woken up by Nicky and Joe breaking in to the apartment of the woman she picked up at a bar.

Quynh and Nile also bond as Team Lesbians by mocking Andy and Booker’s taste in men.

Finding her in a woman’s bed is how Jicky and Joe find out she’s the current Team’s Lesbian (pre-Quynh return) because they are oblivious and Nile is significantly more subtle then literally the entire rest of the team.

She points this out to them when they accuse her of hiding her sexuality.

“Not every one likes to tongue people at the breakfast table.”

Andy and Quynh only barely came up for air when she said that. Nicky snorted apple juice out of his nose.

Nile doesn’t like baklava.

The rest of the team is Offended by this.

Nicky brings her baklava from all over trying to find one she likes.

Nicky and Booker have a running bet about whether she will like it or puke. (After Quynh brings him back into the fold in a flourish of red robes and Fuck Offs.)

Nile loves s'mores.

The team is also Offended by this.

Booker cackles every time she makes a point to eat s'mores in front of Nicky.

Joe is in charge of teaching Nile to be subtle and less reckless.

This was the worst decision the team ever made. Crusades included.

Nile gets Joe to jump off a building with her within the first day.

Andy is not pleased and Nicky is not amused. Quynh gave them both high fives.

Layne, that stubborn adorable little brother of hers, tracks Nile down when Copley doesn’t take a TikTok down quick enough.

It takes him three months, but he knocks on her door in Rio one day and Nile legit does not stop hugging him for at least an hour.

There’s a tense week of negotiations before Layne becomes part of Team Not Immortal/Team Headache with Copley.

Layne cannot keep a secret from his mother.

Nile recieves a long voicemail informing her that she is expected for Friday Dinner for her formal nagging about dying in combat and NOT INFORMING HER MOTHER when she came back to life.

Mama Freeman is both sarcastic and sweet. She and Quynh hit it off like fireworks.

Which is to say, there was a car explosion and Andy got lectured by Two Total Moms about safety. 

Basically, I am all for Team Immortal getting a few extra Freemans because it would make Nile smile more. Also, no one is ever straight in my headcanons. Maybe Layne? Idk, somebody’s gotta be right?


	5. AU Idea #1: The Obligatory A/B/O One

None of them are Alphas. Because I like to wave at stereotypes as I go by in my ‘Omegas are the Real Badasses’ Train.

Andy, Joe, and Quynh are Betas. Nicky and Booker are Omegas. They’ve been going along for centuries and millenia thinking that maybe alphas just Can’t be immortals.

And then Nile pops up. The first Alpha they’ve ever welcomed into their ranks. No one knows what to do. It changes nothing, of course, because everyone is FAR too busy to worry about designations when creepy pharma CEOs and amoral scientists have designs on your genetic code.

But when all is said in done, well… Nile can’t just Leave Booker. He’s a part of their unit, punishment or no, and he’s an Omega. Every fiber of her being tells her to drag his ass back into the fold and everyone else can just deal.

Quynh beats her to it. She goes full heart eyes. But, yeah… Andy and Quynh have History, with a capital H. Probably in calligraphy. So she pines from afar as the rest of the fam watches with an ever increasing arsenal of puns.

The crush wears off a few decades in when Nile meets this cybernetically-enhanced Brazillian soldier who’s arm turns into a Literal Lightsaber. Her name is Jaina.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, that was a Star Wars reference. The Extended Universe will have to be ripped from my dead hands, I refuse to give it up!


	6. AU Idea #2: College AU, because everyone has at least one idea for this!

Nile is an art history major, cause canon, and Andy is this Indiana Jones sort of professor who teaches The Best course on Greek antiquities.

Booker is a grad student in Literature who listens to ABBA while reading Napoleonic Poetry and grumbling about his dissertation in the worst russian his boyfriend Copley has ever heard.

Copley’s a hacker. Probably. Maybe? Booker just knows he works on computers and frequents the cafe with the strongest coffee in a 10 mile radius. That’s where they met. The Cappuccino Incident of 2019 is spoken of is hushed, angry tones by all who remember it.

Joe is a professor in the Business School who spends a suspicious amount of time in the religious studies department, where Nicky teaches about Catholicism and a few classes on the Crusades. Rumors abound that he’s a seminary school drop out, but no one believes it because of the aforementioned Business School professor who keeps coming out of his office with wrinkled shirts.

Joe and Nicky are actually married, but no one outside of the Provost knows. The Provost is Quynh and she just so happens to have officiated their wedding.

Quynh was once the head of the history department, specializing in Medieval Weaponry and the Witch Trials. She keeps an iron maiden looking thing in her office and it does half the job of intimidating annoying alumni and dumb bureaucrats for her.

They’re all vaguely aware of one another to some degree or another. (Nile once took enough credits in a single semester that the Dean of Students asked if they should put a cap on credits included in the tuition.)

One day, it rains, and Nile trips trying to catch Andy. Nile needs her permission to take Andy’s graduate course on Scythian art. The rain makes the ground slippery and Nile slides, face first, towards some mud. She knocks into Booker, spilling both his and Copley’s coffees, and then into Andy, who kindly catches her.

Quynh was walking with Joe and Nicky to meet Andy for lunch. They find Andy wrestling with Booker in the mud - something about proper responses to accidents - while Copley helps Nile get some of the mud out of her hair.

“Now *this* looks like an interesting story!” Joe gestures wide and Nicky takes a step back as Andy tackles him into the mud.

Something. Something. They all live happily ever after and earn 4.0 GPAs because I want to live vicariously.


	7. AU Idea #3: Andy Gets Trapped in the Ocean Instead

Literally, they throw Andy into the iron casket instead. Quynh is our emotionally exhausted protagonist instead. She drinks less, talks more, and doesn’t become mortal at the end. The plot of the movie doesn't change much, BUT!

The movie ends with Andy, sopping wet, shoving open Booker’s door and stealing his bottle of whiskey right out of his hand.

“Who the fuck are you?” 

“I’m Andromache the Scythian.” She finds his vodka on the counter. “You can call me Andy.”


	8. Crusaders for Education

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tovezza on tumblr had a great post about how financials for the Guard would work and there was one line about Nile I HAD to add on to with a quick drabble...
> 
> "Found ways to secretly feed cash into her entire extended family's bank accounts and get her brother's college tuition paid for."

Layne Freeman does not remember applying for this scholarship. He's never even Heard of this scholarship. Who the hell names a scholarship fund 'Crusaders for Education' in the first place?!

"Don't complain about good things when we got plenty of bad," his mother's words echoed in his head though and she's right, so he checks the requirements - maintain 3.5 GPA, mail a handwritten thank you note - they're all pretty standard for academic scholarships. Layne deposits the money and sends the thank you note and then gets his ass to graduate school in three years. 

It's not until the scholarship continues for his master's program that Layne starts to get suspicious. No one, No One, gives money to masters students. It's undergrads and PhDs all the way.

"It's totally hinky, ma, the foundation doesn't even have a board of directors!" 

Still... grad school is expensive, and no one gives money to masters students, so Layne deposits the money and writes his thank you note. 

This time, though, he sends it certified mail and requests a signature. It only takes him a few extra key strokes to get a copy of that signature.

Did he mention his masters was in Internet Infrastructure and Security? 

The thing about the signature is that it looks familiar. The loops and jagged lines that blur together like a hug with a hair ruffle. 

Nyla Smith. He's never met her and google turns up nothing. Hell, his first few passes through the dark web don't get him anything either. But then he finds a p.o. box in Malta and some Google Maps photos that haven't been deleted as well as someone thinks they have. 

"Fucking hell..." Layne stares open mouthed at his screen as his big sister's face comes into focus. Her hair's out of braids now, cut and shaped into twin afro buns. In any other circumstances he'd make a Baby Spice joke, but his cheeks are wet with tears and he's too busy searching for the meta data on the picture. 

Three weeks later, Layne knocks on the door of some old house on a cliff in Malta that doesn't even have a proper road nearby. 

"Hey big sis, been a while," Layne greets his sister, voice dripping with sarcasm. It all melts away as soon as Nile wraps him up in her arms. 

She doesn't let go for hours and Layne is perfectly happy to cry into her shoulder, "Damn did I miss you, little brother."


	9. AU Idea #4: High School Teachers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> with-my-murder-flute on tumblr had an excellent post about Booker being a sixth-form teacher and while my attempted to translate that into American English I had an idea...

Andy would totally be the alcoholic, half-drunk at all times Language Arts teacher who rambles on about Shakespeare’s lovers and how pretentious Virgil was. She is, for reasons none of the other teachers in the department understand, the head of the department. (Seniority. And a certain administrator thought it was hilarious.) 

Nicky and Joe could be the teachers that students are trying to setup without knowing they’re already married. What’s that’s trope called again? I love it so much. Their in the history department, one of them teaches American History and the other teaches World History (that's really more European Imperialism, but no one outside the history department Actually cares). This is a rivalry as old as time (or at least the standardization of the U.S. education system) and their classrooms just Happen to be right across from each other. There is at least One inter-department fight about one of the Revolutions a quarter and the rest of the department takes bets on which revolution it will be. One year, it was the American Revolution and the entire pool went to Andy, there's still debate about whether she fixed the result somehow. 

Nile… hmm… obvioualy she’s in the art department, but is she a first year teacher or Joe’s student teacher/intern. Joe teaches Art and History because why would the school pay for an art teacher if they have a history teacher with the appropriate cert? Nile is sort of hoping she can turn her student teaching into a job offer - which Joe is super on board with because have you ever tried to balance two departments before? Hell to the no. He does not get paid enough for this shit. Poor Nile walks into the school with hopes and dreams about teaching Art and ends up spending half her time giving students detention for drawing crude penises in their official school sketchbooks. Why does she give the detention she wonders? Most renaissance art has visible penises? The school has strict moral guidelines, that's why. Nile flatly refuses to dress code the girls for their tank tops though, the administration can't Prove that she noticed they were wearing it in her class without a sweater. 

Quynh is an administrator. Have you seen that posture? The woman eats board members and corrupt superintendents for breakfast as the teachers watch with vicious grins. Nile once complains to Andy about the moral guidelines in the student handbook and it suddenly appears on the docket for the school board to address at the next meeting. No one else appears to have put two-and-two together, but Nile took an art history class with their son Lykon once, so she already knew they were together. (That may or may not have been a contributing factor in her applying to that Specific School for her student teaching.)

Copley is the overly involved single dad who joined the PTA/PTO and is suddenly thrust into Dealing With These People. He is constantly distracted by the very short shorts that the P.E. teacher, who goes by Booker even though his diplomas all say Sebastian Le Livre. Copley wants to know. He tries to ask many times. But the damn shorts... (and yes, Nile does take photographic evidence of Booker's shorts to the school board, because apparently admin never has a problem with His knees showing)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can Nile date Lykon in this AU? Is that TOO many ships?


	10. Overprotective Nicky Trope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "trope where one half of the ship gets injured or kidnapped and the other half goes absolutely ballistic"

The first time it happens, they aren’t even together yet. Not beyond their tentative truce and agreement to travel together. Yusuf is almost certain the Christian is going to abandon him when he returns to their camp site outside of town to find Yusuf gone.

Nicolo is full of surprises though.

His captors have him strung up before some sort of altar in their Christian church and Nicolo covers the entire sanctuary in blood when he catches sight of Yusuf’s wounds.

“Do your people not have a rule about violence in a place of worship?” Yusuf asks in Italian as Nicolo wraps an arm around Yusuf’s waist to help support him. His body is still healing and he finds he appreciates Nicolo’s grip.

“The pope granted remission of my sins,” Nicolo speaks in Arabic and Yusuf frowns. Nicolo arches a brow and repeats himself in Italian. The frown only deepens.

-.-.-

In the centuries that follow capture is rare, an it usually occurs as a pair, so it isn’t until WWII that Joe makes the connection. The Nazis are not kind to their POW, even less so when they discover Joe’s heaaling ability.

Nicky arrives before he’s shipped out to one of the deranged doctors who’d be sure to experiment on him. It is quite a sight, a man with a medic’s cross on his arm, covered in the blood, and holding a broadsword.

The unit that frees the camp is too distracted by the state of the prisoners to bother being frightened by Nicky’s temper. Joe, himself, can’t help but smile.

“You have such a temper, love,” Joe chuckles as Nicky carries him out to sit in the fresh air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 100% Nicky is the overprotective one, violently. Joe's too soft and pure for such a temper. Nicky's got murder in his eyes, and his face, and occasionally on his hands.


	11. Running Gag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicky and Joe never let Copley live down that betrayal. 
> 
> hauntedfalcon on tumblr had a post about how they'd have kept commenting on the plane the entire way to London and they're 100% right that all love our immortal sass masters.

It becomes a running gag where they comment on the nice things in Copley’s vehicles for the rest of his life. Copley is *just* guilt-ridden enough not to mention it… for the first year.

“Yes, yes, leather seats, the car is three years old, you don’t have to-”

“3 years?! Wow, it’s holding up magnificently.” “Just listen to that engine, absolutely silent!”

Copley looks to Andy, "Please make them stop."

"Did you reupholster?" Andy smiles and Copley groans.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ygrittebardots on tumblr made a fabulous post about our lord and savor Yusuf al-Kaysani banding together with our lady of art history Nile and my headcanon painter Quynh stealing back cultural art and artifacts from museums. Restorative justice ftw! 
> 
> scythian-andromache added on that taking Booker with them would be hilarious, because he use to be a forger (and probably forged some stuff in That Specific Museum). I, obviously, had to add my two cents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> from scythian-andromache
> 
> nile [as joe wraps up the object they came for]: should we take this piece too?   
> booker [sheepish]: it’s, uh, not real. i forged that back in ‘52.   
> nile [pointedly not asking which ‘52]: uh-huh.  
> booker: it’s in my safe house in marseille.  
> nile: *looks into the camera like she’s on the office*

Nicky’s eyes narrow “Why is it in your safe house?”

“If you’ve had it so long, you should have returned it to the appropriate-” Joe starts his lecture, but is quickly cut off.

“…then they’d find out this one is a forgery…” Booker gestured helplessly at the artifact.

Nile sighed, hand moving to her face, “Why is that important exactly?”

“I want to see how long it takes them to figure it out. The curator has it authenticated every time it goes on tour and so far I’ve bested 87 experts on this piece alone.”

Booker’s face lit up and Joe chuckled. It had been some time since they’d seen such emotion on the Frenchman’s face.

“It is safe?” Joe asks, eyebrow raised. Booker nods. “Properly stored?” Booker raised a hand to his chest in offense. Joe shakes his head, “Once you get to 100, you give it back regardless.”

Booker is nearly grinning, hands clasped tightly together, “That’s fair.”

Nile throws her hands in the air and Quynh sticks her head out from the next exhibit over, “Did you forge anything else in this museum?”

Now, Booker is grinning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Link to tumblr post, because there was some other awesome takes in the notes: https://raybyanothername.tumblr.com/post/626992476945776640/nickys-eyes-narrow-why-is-it-in-your-safe


	13. Resurrected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nile meets resurrected Lykon.

“Who the hell are you?!” Nile raises a gun at the man who strolls into their safe house with a smug grin and a spear.

Lykon doesn’t even blink at the gun, his eyes sparkle, “I knew I’d like you.”

A clatter behind her draws Nile’s attention. She doesn’t lower the weapon, just shifts so she can see both the man at the door and Andy, her axe now at her feet.

“Lykon?” Andy says the name like a prayer and Nile’s brow raises.

“Took a tad longer, but I healed up, eventually.” Lykon shrugs and leans his spear against the wall. He moves forward, arms open, and Andy rushes to pull him into a tight hug.

Nile lowers the gun, more confused than ever. Her eyes stick to the spear, “Is this.. is this from the second dynasty?!” The gun is quickly holstered so she can expect the spear closer, “Do you know how rare this is?!”

“Not a clue, no, it was pretty common when I got it.” Lykon shrugs as he turns around to face Nile again.

Andy is pinching the bridge of her nose, head shaking, “Nile, this is Lykon, the… well, he *was* the only immortal that’d died.”

“And you died during the second dynasty?” Nile raise a brow, hands moving to her hip, “I have so many questions.”

Lykon chuckled, he looked over his shoulder ar Andy, “I like her.” He winked at Nile as her face reddened, “I always wanted a little sister.”


	14. AU Idea #5: Leverage AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Leverage Crew as Immortals, some thoughts inspired by some tumblr posts from life-love-geekculture and do-what-the-knight-tells-you. Links in the Notes!

I’d probably go for Elliot/Hardison as Immortal Husbands. Not just because I think Elliot as a former Crusader fits his back story Perfectly, but also… Parker as Nile is Golden in my head.

Parker could be a foster kid who’s only decent familiar connection pre-immortality was this Marine recruiter who taught her cool tricks while she was living on the street. Sergeant Archie Leach never took her home, but it did inspire Parker to enlist whens she finds out he was KIA.

I’d also be down for Parker/Elliot as Immortal Husbands because Hardison as Nile would allow us to still have that struggle about returning to a family that needs him. He can’t just let Nana think he died?! In action?! Do you Know what that would do to her heart?! There are kids still depending on her!

He and Nile would also both be down to surreptitiously send said family money after they’re ‘dead.’ I think Nile would approve Hardison’s version of her story is all I’m saying.

I don’t know if I’d be down to continue my OT3 with Nile as one of them in the original TOG as Leverage though. She’s just too much of the baby of the family for my taste, hits a tad too close to one of my squicks. Leverage to Old Guard though… well, the ot3 is part of what makes the Leverage characters them to my mind, so it’d be impossible not to include.

-.-.-

While I understand Nate has to be the oldest for the traditional Immortal!Leverage to work, he reminds me the most of Booker. They have very similar backstories, give or take 200 years…

So…idea, what if Nate is actually the youngest, and the Immortal Leverage crew gathers to support him, to keep him afloat. They’ve all been Aware of each other, but they never went full crew like those other immortals in Europe, it just wasn’t their vibe.

But Nate Needs them! And they could learn to work together…maybe, just for a while, to help him. That’s the only reason. It’s absolutely not because they’re starting to Like hanging out with each other…

I do really like the idea of Hardison coming online without any combat experience. That could somehow trickle in to Elliot teaching Hardison some hand-to-hand and then Oops! Feelings!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Link to Threads: 
> 
> https://raybyanothername.tumblr.com/post/626528679557824512/this-works-in-both-directions-and-i-love-it


	15. Heels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quynh's musing when she sees women in heels for the first time.

“Weren’t those… riding shoes?” Quynh looks around the city block. It takes Copley a moment to realize she’s looking for a horse. “And I knew a princess who got beaten for wearing them once. Though, they weren’t quite so…pointy then.”

Copley opens his mouth, but freezes, “I honestly don’t know how to explain how heels have changed in the last hundred years.”

“The aristocracy stole them from the cavalry for height, and then shoved them at their wives when they realized it would slow them down.” Booker supplies with a shrug.

Quynh nods, eyes narrowing, “That doesn’t shock me.” Out of the corner of her eyes she catches some golden stilettos on a woman’s foot, “But they are quite fetching…”


	16. AU Concept #6: Activist/Non-Soldier Nile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jarchivistsims posted about wishing Nile would have been anything other than a solider in the movie, and I got to thinking about what the alternatives could have been.
> 
> TW: police brutality/violence against protestors

I think they made her a soldier to place her in a more Europe-accessible location (and because the most likely first death of an activist is a victim of police brutality in some way). I would absolutely have loved to see her as an activist working in Chicago, probably as a BLM organizer of some sort.

That being said! I did enjoy how they spun Nile’s story in the movie as a marine struggling with having taken a life - that seems to be weighing on her more than the immortality I think. And I always took that ‘you come from warriors’ comment from Andy to be about her mother - fighting to keep her head above water and keep her children moving forward after a major loss.

Continuing on with the AU concept though… if we happen to write Nile, the daughter of a Black Panther killed during a protest, who leads a BLM group and dies during a protest… How does that change the story?

Is her brother the one that watches her come back to life? That angst… too much! But then we get Layne integration right from the start… Depending on the specifics, he was probably filming whatever was happening as well, possibly streaming. That could be bad a la Merrick, putting her on people’s radar much sooner.

Do we make her marine comrades her fellow protesters instead? I think that would be a good way to keep that diverse female representation we got. They could either be a part of her BLM group or reps from other groups that marched with her in solidarity. It could be a good opportunity to show some of the activists groups working with BLM on the current protests.

How does she die? My initial thought was either her being shot by a cop or her choking on tear gas, maybe having a severe reaction. Since her throat was slit in canon, I think some form of suffocation or damage to her throat makes the most sense. There’s obviously the parallel of a cop physically assaulting her, either kneeling on her neck or some other manner of suffocation, after she saves the cop in some way.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that going this route would 100% not have been approved by any studio right now. It would have been labeled a political statement and cut immediately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://raybyanothername.tumblr.com/post/629166733503102976/preface-trigger-warning-for-police


	17. Artemisia Gentileschi by Nila Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My Old Guard headcanon inspired by my most favorite tumblr post about Artemisia Gentileschi.

Nile would absolutely love Artemisia and hound Andy/Joe/Nicky about whether the met her. Joe and Nicky were busy and sadly reported they hadn’t, but Andy… well, she has a thing for artists… 

Nile will then enlist Copley to help her track down every detail about Artemisia’s life. Combine that with several (slightly drunken) interviews with Andy and Nile is suddenly publishing the Definitive Academic Text on Artemisia Gentileschi. Under a pseudonym of course. Maybe not a good pseud though, because I want Layne to find it.


	18. Some Lykon Headcanons

  * Lykon loves horses. Modern day horse girls do not have anything on him. He spent a good chunk of his immortal life helping to train war horses and giving them soft names that reflected the inner peace he felt while riding them.
  * As such, he is both Appaled and Excited to discover the way horses are viewed now. Pro - horses are not used in war as much and thus don’t die violently nearly so often. Con - there are fewer horses and they’re mostly owned by people who don’t actually care for them.
  * Y'all don’t want to know what he does to those jerks who work horses to death or drug them to win races. ~~It ain’t nice.~~
  * Lykon *may* be involved in some modern day horse smuggling when he returns from his long nap.
  * Our boy is very confused by all the heteronormativity of the modern era. The first bigot who tries to ‘save him’ gets a confused face and an historically accurate description of polyamory and how soldiers organized their orgies while on campaign.
  * “That… was awesome.” Layne Freeman, standing in awe of our rambling sleeping beauty when the man gets a free round of drinks from the gay bartender after the fact.
  * Nile and Lykon are chaotic adopted siblings. This sibling-esque relationship does **not** extend to her brother. Who he finds cute and bookish.
  * Lykon’s method for stopping Andy’s drinking is to make outrageous bets. He wins them, much to Nicky’s great confusion, and then takes her available alcohol as his prize.
  * That method does not work on Booker. Lykon is on a mission to find all of his stashes. Nicky bets him he can’t.
  * Lykon wins that bet and Nicky mucks out the stalls for all of Lykon’s stolen horses.
  * Joe and Lykon compare travelling stories over Booker’s stash - with said Frenchmen completely unaware and searching frantically for that alcohol - and discover that they have several favorite cities in common.
  * A family road trip is quickly planned. Andy grumbles through most of it - she’d been there with one or the other before and reliving the past is not her favorite hobby by far.
  * Lykon pokes, prodes, and cajoles a few smiles out of her just the same. Joe buys him three desserts at dinner, and Nicky finds the best baklava in every city as a gift.
  * Lykon is always full of energy - all smiles and jokes to put others at ease - but when he wakes with nightmares of a neverending darkness he crawls into bed between Andy and Quynh.
  * He was very young when his parents died. He couldn’t remember their faces long before immortality set in. The only person he shared that with is Quynh.




End file.
